Tuesday, June 30, 2015

We are kicking off the 2nd half of 2015 with the month full of little and big adventures!! Satchi starts her kindergarden in early August so this is our way of filling her and Coco's summer memories before she starts her official 5 days/week schooling! Our first trip is the family camping to Malibu this weekend then Satchi and I will be off to Michigan to see our friend Susan for a week and get some BK inspiration from Detroit... followed by another family camping trip. We settle back to LA home in mid-July and head out to another overnight Palm Spring swimming fun. Then I will finish up the month with mama+kids mountain cabin trip with another family friend. This means that I will be in the studio sporadically (I am there most of July Sundays if you are interested in chatting about summer, travel and love for analogue:) but will be sharing our adventure here on the blog and working nights and in-between time remotely. OH and let's not forget seeing you via Instagram:) I hope you travel along with us! Let the adventurous traveling month of July begin!xoxo-wp.s. I can already predict (and announce it publicly here) that I will be slightly exhausted by the end of this month. But why not live life totally and fully, right? :)

Monday, June 29, 2015

Friends who visited our house always wondered why we don't have any pictures of ourselves in our house. I don't know why... but we haven't. But that's about to change:)Frido is getting more and more into taking pictures of "moments" with his vintage polaroid cameras. I love it when he spontaenously grab the camera and start shooting. Many of them come out so imperfectly perfect and I totally adore them... so we now have a dedicated corner for our family pictures taken with The Impossible Project film. I can't wait to see the rows of pictures to grow slowly. xoxo to love for analogue!p.s. If you love Polaroid, definitely check out our friend Erin's project when he captured the first year of his daughter's life... everyday.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

When we grow, I suppose we grow in many different directions. And that is what is happening at Baum-kuchen. It started with the need to shift into online bookkeeping/synching of our orders... then it has been like a domino effect. So excited that Frido, Nerine and I started the discussion of near future possibility to add another person to our BK team... and the need to adjust our space to accommodate our current and future work flow. One of our biggest goal is to create more seamless transition between the front and back room experience. We want the look and feel of our back room to be just as Baum-kuchen as the front shop. So the team who works behind Baum-kuchen can first and foremost experience what BK feels like. I am glad to report that the first step of transition happened over the weekend.Frido stopped by the studio on Friday and Nerine and I shared our wish list for our back room so multiple people can work more comfortably and effectively as a team. We talked about possibility of Traveler's Notebook "wall" in the front shop. We also talked about adding extra shelving system to accommodate more inventory. Today I got in the studio and moved my work desk to the very very very back of the back room. It is to "test it out" but I am pretty sure that I have permanently graduated from working in the front shop area. It's cool that I started at the very front of the shop where desk used to be when we first opened the studio/shop... and gradually moved towards the back room. It reflects my thought of needing to play less front shop role and more content creation and creative direction (although I will still be opening the shop many days of the week:) The shop role will be a nice tag team effort with Nerine. Moving my stuff out of the front studio really opened the space in the front... bringing more inspiration and new thoughts of what space could be used for! It will be a process to finish the entire project but we are beyond excited with where we are at!xo-w

Friday, June 26, 2015

I hope your week was wonderful. You probably have received our most recent Baum-kuchen love letter in your inbox earlier this week. (If you haven't subscribed to our monthly love letter, you can definitely check out this page to "subscribe")During the summer months, our friend/co-curator of the BK love letter Angie Park and I will be sharing ideas, thoughts and inspiration about "happiness comes from within." To kick off the theme, I asked Angie herself if she would like to put together a little clip about her perspective on the topic. If you have not received our love letter, I would really really really love you to take 5 minutes to hear Angie's very personal story and her journey of saying farewell to her father early this year... and ultimately what came after. When Angie first brought in her materials earlier last month - raw clips and texts, she asked me if the contents were too far from what "Baum-kuchen" was. I remember vividly saying her that Baum-kuchen stands behind authenticity and real story not a kind of life that is filled with facade and made up "always happy" moments. We tend to be optimistic when it comes to seeing things but we are also fully aware that life is beautiful because of what is real. After seeing her materials, I didn't know exactly what we would do to finish up as a project... we chatted about some thoughts but headed home without having a concrete plan. Her story was so important to me because I had a true honor to witness her through this journey, had a true respect to who she is... and for her courage to share something that was so personal to her. I really wanted the message to be communicated in a meaningful way. I have worked on different creative projects throughout the years... and I knew in my gut that sometimes ideas take time to formulate and I can not force the answer to come out on a spot. The same night as I was going to sleep and thinking of her and her journey through, I had the vision of really hearing the story through her voice. Next morning I sent Angie an email with the possibility of her "speaking" the story while I edited her audio with motion footage which she captured in last few months. The result is what you see and hear on this video.I believe it is by far one of the most important stories we have shared as Baum-kuchen and I am truly thankful for Angie to trust me to be the editor of her story and for Baum-kuchen to be the platform to share her voice. I hope it will help you to pause and to take a moment to reflect what happiness means to you today. Thank you Angie! xoxo-wakako

Monday, June 22, 2015

I am thrilled to be back home with my family in Los Angeles! Yesterday after I came home, we did s'mores for special treats. Our friend magically knew that I have been following the adventure of Whimsy and Spice for years... and sent me a pack of their special s'mores kit and few more goodies. Seriously... the best s'mores ever!The girls had some rough time while I was away. Satchi had her 5 year vaccine and she had some aftereffect. Pretty high fever and generally more emotional. They also had great moment... playing in the backyard and meeting up with friends. Like everything in life, changes can be challenging as well as a chance for growing-up experience for kids (and grown-ups)! Hoping to settle down for little while at home before we take off to another adventure:)xo-w

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Our 2nd day in Portland was filled with more tasty spots, visiting local boutique shops and being a part of our special friend Laura's baby shower... all in downtown Portland. I love that I can bring everyone with me to this journey by sharing bits and pieces of my experience via Instagram. Whenever I travel, I always ask myself "can I live here?". If Portland is always this sunny, I would definitely answer myself "yes";) Here is a list of my favorite Portland spots from today!Tasty n Alder: we had our brunch there this morning. We were so lucky that we arrived to the restaurant at 9am sharp when they just opened because there was already a long line waiting to be seated when door opened! Truly a tasty spot that is a must on the list of Portland downtown eatery!Canoe: A very curated boutique shop. I (of course) couldn't help to be gravitated towards their analogue tool station including really awesome pens they were carrying. My sister found some special birthday gifts there!MadeHere PDX: A lovely collection of all Portland goods. I got in an awesome conversation with the person behind the shop about how much we both LOVE Superior Labor. I knew right then... the shop was an awesome fit for me:) WILL leather goods: LOVE the smell of this shop when you first walk in. I love seeing, feeling, touching, and smelling a great craftsmanship. And they had leather business card. Well... how about that?Lowell: an eclectic vintage / antiques shop. I was thrilled to see a treasure cabinet that was hang on their wall. Totally brought me home:) Jamison Square: the inner city park with water feature! I will so be here if I had Satchi and Coco with me. Tomorrow we head home!xoxo-w

I am on weekend trip with my Mom and my sister in Portland. It has been a very long time since I traveled without Satchi and Coco. It took me little while to get used to being on my own. I definitely miss them but also so thankful that Frido got the home front covered this weekend.

I crushed to sleep as soon as I boarded on the tiny airplane this morning and felt like I was literally floating for a while... in sleep. Going back and fourth between past, present and future. Half dreaming and half remembering. After I woke up from my power nap, I was ready to soak up the inspiration from this weekend!Here is the visual vignette of today and what I was inspired by. Being in Portland definitely reminds me of my time in Seattle... before kids. The apartment we are renting via airbnb brings memory of Suzanne, my lovely roommate in Seattle. It reminds me those days in the past existed in my life and has become a part of whom I became today even though I don't think of it often because memory feels so so so far away. I am certain that this trip like others in the past will steer me in the direction it is meant to do. Let's see what tomorrow brings:)xoxo-w (from Portland)